FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
December 14, 2006

Word on approval of the Heath-Newark-Licking County Port Authority’s application for a grant under the new Ohio Job Ready Sites program was received today in the form of an announcement from Ohio Governor Bob Taft. The announcement contained very good news for Western Licking County in that a $3.4 million grant has been recommended for approval for Pataskala Corporate Park.

The Port Authority is pleased that our grant request has been approved. This grant approval is validation that Pataskala Corporate Park is, indeed, among Ohio’s elite, large manufacturing sites.

The public and private partners are to be congratulated for an effort that brought the Pataskala site to be among a very small number of sites from communities around Ohio that have achieved this level. The site is just one of seven manufacturing-related sites recommended for funding.

The grant amount, at $3.4 million, is less than what was requested in the Port Authority application. The state believes a state-certified, job-ready site is achievable at this level of funding. Thus, this funding shortfall is actually an infrastructure shortfall. It challenges us to adjust our development plans to build what available funding will permit. We are optimistic about a resolution to the shortfall.

The same level of cooperation that got us to this point of grant approval is going to be required to keep this project moving forward. The change in funding triggers a new approach from among our public and private partners. An exchange of ideas is necessary and desired. The Port Authority will be looking to meet with the officials from the Emswiler trusts, Licking County, City of Pataskala, Etna Township, and other partners in the near future to iron out more details and begin a path, we hope, toward preparing this property to fulfill its long-envisioned promise to become Ohio’s premier dual-electric, open access rail Super Site.

Expectations need to remain grounded. The grant approval, though fantastic news, was not our ultimate target. The Port Authority, and its multiple public and private partners in this effort, aimed for a job ready site. Though we will have cleared a very large hurdle with approval of this grant, there remain numerous hurdles to clear in the future on the track to a job-ready site.